THE MYTH OF POLICE REFORM IN NIGERIA: WHY STRUCTURAL ROT, PATRONAGE, AND INSTITUTIONAL COMPLICITY MAKE REAL CHANGE IMPOSSIBLE
-By Zik Gbemre
The conversation about reforming the Nigerian Police Force has become one of the most repeated political slogans in Nigeria. Every few years, a new Inspector General of Police is appointed, committees are set up, white papers are written, conferences are organized, and promises of “modernizing” the police dominate the public discourse. Yet on the ground, nothing fundamentally changes. The crisis within the Nigerian Police Force is not a superficial administrative problem that can be solved through speeches, policy papers, or even salary increases. It is a deep institutional decay rooted in corruption, patronage, abuse of power, and the systematic erosion of professional ethics.
Reforming the Nigerian Police Force is therefore not a matter of appointing a supposedly competent officer as Inspector General and hoping that things will magically improve. It is not even about increasing salaries, building new police stations, or buying modern equipment. The rot within the institution runs far deeper than these cosmetic reforms can address. The uncomfortable truth is that corruption has become embedded within the operational culture of the police system, from the lowest ranks to the highest offices.
Even if Nigerian police officers were paid the highest salaries in the country, corruption would not disappear simply because the problem is not solely economic. The problem is institutional and moral. A system that has normalized abuse of power, extortion, bribery, and the manipulation of justice cannot be corrected by wishful thinking. The Nigerian Police Force today operates in a culture where misconduct is not only tolerated but often rewarded.
For several days now, I have been using social media and mainstream media to call attention to a troubling example involving DCP Alani Adegoke of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Delta State Police Command Headquarters in Asaba. Under the watch of the Commissioner of Police in Delta State, CP Aina Adesola, an abuse of official authority has occurred in a case that is neither complicated nor ambiguous.
The matter is straightforward. An individual identified as Emuoboh Gbagi allegedly engaged thugs who brutally assaulted and injured tenants and store owners at Robinson Plaza on Deco Road in Warri. This act of violence should have immediately triggered a proper police investigation and criminal charges. Instead, the suspects Emuoboh Gbagi and his mother, Mrs. Evelyn Turner have not been prosecuted in court. The case has simply been allowed to stagnate, buried under bureaucratic indifference and institutional reluctance.
When a police officer entrusted with investigative authority refuses to perform his duty in such a clear case of violence, it raises fundamental questions about the integrity of the system. The issue is no longer about isolated misconduct; it becomes evidence of a deeper culture of impunity.
The situation becomes even more troubling when one examines the broader pattern of police postings and internal politics within the Nigerian Police Force. It is widely known that many officers lobby aggressively to be posted to certain states particularly oil-resource-rich states like Delta not for the purpose of enforcing law and order but for access to illicit opportunities. These states offer access to lucrative networks involving oil and gas facilities, private security arrangements, political patronage, and the informal economy surrounding them.
It is not an exaggeration to say that a significant number of police officers from the rank of Assistant Superintendents of Police (ASPs) up to Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCPs) and Commissioners of Police actively seek postings to Delta State for the wrong reasons. These postings are rarely based on merit, professionalism, or operational competence. Instead, they are often influenced by internal lobbying, patronage networks, and expectations of financial gain.
Another disturbing example illustrates the same pattern of institutional failure. On December 26, 2025, a case was reported involving the abduction of an oil asset surveillance guard, Matthew Etanireri, at the Utorogu–UPS Pipeline within OML 34, which is operated by NEPL/ND Western Ltd. The incident occurred in Otor-Edo Community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State, a location that hosts oil and gas pipeline.
According to reports, Matthew Etanireri was abducted by a community hoodlum named Kennedy Egole and members of his gang. The abduction reportedly took place under the watch of soldiers attached to the security arrangement protecting the Utorogu pipeline right-of-way and Utorogu gas plant. After holding the victim hostage, the abductors eventually released him but only after collecting ransom payments, with documented evidence of bank transfers.
Initially, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Otu-Jeremi acted appropriately by arresting Kennedy Egole. However, the situation took an unexpected turn when the suspect was later released without being charged in court shortly after the new Commissioner of Police, CP Aina Adesola, assumed office in Delta State.
However, the case did not end there. Instead of being properly prosecuted in court, the matter gradually disappeared from the normal course of investigation. The suspect who was earlier arrested by the DPO of Otu-Jeremi Division released shortly after the new Commissioner of Police in Delta State, CP Aina Adesola, assumed office. The case was later hijacked by the Area Commander of Ughelli, ACP Olasunkanmi Musiliu, together with the office of the Commissioner of Police. As I write this, the police have effectively covered up this serious criminal offence that occurred around the vital oil facilities at Utorogu.
Today, the crime remains effectively covered up, despite the gravity of the offense and the sensitive nature of the oil facilities involved.
This pattern of institutional interference reveals why police reform remains elusive in Nigeria. Cases are routinely hijacked at multiple levels of the police hierarchy. The Police Headquarters in Abuja can take over a case and quietly terminate it. Zonal commands can intervene and stall investigations. State headquarters can suppress cases for political or financial reasons. Area commands can remove files from divisional investigators. Divisional Police Officers can seize cases from junior officers and reassign them to trusted subordinates who ensure the matter quietly dies.
Justice Becomes Not A Process but A Negotiation:
This is why calls for police reform often ring hollow. Reform cannot succeed when those responsible for implementing it are themselves beneficiaries of the system’s dysfunction.
The leadership structure of the Nigerian Police Force is at the heart of the problem. Appointments of the Inspector General of Police are often determined more by political loyalty than professional merit. Presidents repeatedly select people from their close security circles, former aides-de-camp, orderlies, or trusted insiders—sending a clear message that loyalty outweighs competence and integrity. Once in office, these leaders replicate the same pattern in postings, promotions, and departmental control, rewarding allies and sidelining independent or professional officers.
Adding to the dysfunction is the recent promotion of officers to top ranks by the Police Service Commission. Many promotions are based on years of service rather than performance, integrity, or ability to lead. Officers elevated to senior positions often lack the professionalism, moral character, or capacity to serve effectively; their rise is tied to connections and their skill in returning favors to superiors. With thirteen additional Assistant Inspectors General now added to the system, the top ranks are further bloated, creating more layers of inefficiency and patronage. One has to ask: what meaningful reform can such a system deliver when the very people it elevates are products of the same flawed structure?
Once an Inspector General of Police assumes office, the same pattern repeats itself. Senior postings across zones, states, and specialized departments often reflect internal alliances, ethnic considerations, or patronage relationships. Officers seen as loyal allies are placed in strategic commands, while more independent or professionally minded officers may be sidelined.
This Cycle Ensures That Institutional Culture Never Changes. Instead, The Same Networks Reproduce Themselves Within the System:
The debate about creating state police is often presented as a potential solution. Yet the reality is that state police could easily replicate the same structural problems if the underlying political culture remains unchanged. Without accountability, professionalism, and institutional discipline, decentralizing policing may simply multiply the existing problems across 36 states and the federal capital city of Abuja.
The truth is uncomfortable but necessary to acknowledge: many police officers posted to Delta State remain in the state because it provides opportunities for financial enrichment. Officers often remain glued to lucrative divisions, departments, and operational zones for years, building informal revenue streams through bribery, extortion, and manipulation of criminal complaints.
Complainants Are Forced to Pay to Pursue Justice. Suspects Pay to Avoid Prosecution. Cases Become Commodities Within A Marketplace of Influence:
And yet, it would be unfair to claim that every police officer participates in this culture. There are still officers who attempt to uphold professional standards despite the hostile environment. In Delta State, officers such as ACP Aliyu Shaba, Area Commander of Ekpan in Uvwie Local Government Area, and CSP Plenty Oladipupo of the Otu-Jeremi Police Division have demonstrated a willingness to enforce the law with a degree of integrity in Delta State. They represent the small minority who still believe policing should serve the public interest.
But These Officers Are Exceptions in A System Dominated by Institutional Compromise:
Another troubling example further illustrates the blurred lines between law enforcement, the military, and illicit economic activities. Precisely in September 2025, a man widely alleged to be involved in illegal oil bunkering organized an extravagant birthday celebration in Effurun, Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State. The event reportedly attracted a remarkable list of guests from Nigeria’s security establishment.
Among those present were senior police officers and top military officers including General Christopher Musa, who is now the Minister of Defence. For many observers, the presence of high-ranking security leaders at the birthday party of an alleged illegal bunkering figure raises disturbing questions.
What Exactly Attracts Top Security Officers to Such Gatherings?
For many Nigerians living in oil-producing regions, the answer appears obvious. Illegal bunkering has evolved into a complex ecosystem involving powerful actors across security agencies, political networks, and local economic structures. The same institutions tasked with combating oil theft often appear entangled within the networks that benefit from it.
This reality exposes the central dilemma facing Nigeria today. How can a police force be reformed when the individuals responsible for enforcing discipline within the institution are themselves products of the same compromised system? How can accountability be imposed when the chain of command is intertwined with political patronage and economic interests?
Reform requires more than policy declarations. It requires moral leadership, institutional courage, and the willingness to dismantle entrenched networks of influence.
Unfortunately, Those Conditions Are Largely absent:
The Nigerian Police Force today reflects the broader crisis within Nigerian governance. Institutions that should serve the public interest are too often captured by private interests. Authority becomes a tool for enrichment rather than a responsibility to uphold justice.
Until Nigeria confronts these structural realities, until appointments are based on integrity rather than loyalty, until accountability becomes real rather than rhetorical, and until officers who abuse power face genuine consequences the idea of police reform will remain exactly what it has always been in Nigeria:
A promise endlessly repeated, but never fulfilled.
Zik Gbemre
March 14,2026
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes
